Brittle and Broken
by Mrs Don Draper
Summary: "I apologize. Would you mind repeating yourself?" "I asked how you have been faring. Thinking of settling down yourself?" Schultz plasters on a brittle smile for the man.


After experiencing several delays and a few false leads, Schultz finally manages to track down and kill Billy Bluff. It is no small effort to load the dead man onto his cart, and it takes a long time to get to a town where he knows the sheriff. Reaching town brings a sort of euphoria. The hustle and bustle is refreshing after a fortnight of nothing but Fritz's quiet whinnies and the chirping of crickets. There are people here. People with lives and job and families to go home to at the end of the day. He leads Fritz through the semi-crowded streets and watches the people move. Couples holding hands, children chasing hoops, women window shopping, men bartering over a new saddle. It's so different from the lonely life he leads that it's almost too much for him to take in all at once. It brings that familiar ache right to the surface. A longing for companionship and someone to hold and love and care for. It's a life he once had, but one he knows is no good to think about now. Or ever.

He locates the sheriff's office and hitches his friend to the hitching post before handing over the wanted poster to Sheriff James Parker of the New England Parkers. Though how the man came to work in a town in the middle of Kentucky, he will never understand. A nice house with settled roots and familiar faces is a luxury he could not imagine willingly giving up. Parker greets him with a smile and a handshake and hands over the $1500 in cash for the body of a murdering horse thief.

"I do appreciate the work you put in to this business, Doctor. It makes my job a whole lot easier when I have reliable men like you working with me instead of against me."

Schultz returns the smile and thanks his for the compliment. Although it does feel strange taking a compliment on being an excellent killer of a killer. He knows that if he tries to consider the ethics of justified murder versus unjustified murder, he will not be happy with what he comes up with. Instead, he makes small talk with the man, remembering to ask after his wife and child.

"More than one of them now! George is five now, and Elizabeth just had her first birthday last month. Charlotte is so happy to finally have a little girl to make dresses for. You can tell Lizzie's going to end up looking just like her mother."

That pang of regret hits him again and radiates out from his chest and until it forms a lump in his throat. He lets out a small cough to try to remove it, but it stays fast. Luckily and unluckily, James has a lot to say about his family, so King allows his mind to wander, and his throat finally stops restricting his breath. It is then that King realizes he has been asked a question.

"I apologize. Would you mind repeating yourself?"

"I asked how you have been faring. Thinking of settling down yourself?"

Schultz plasters on a brittle smile for the man.

"Ah, I've thought about it, yes, but then who track down the Billy Bluffs of the world? Hard to go gallivanting across the prairie with a wife and child at home."

"Right you are! Charlotte won't even listen when I try to talk about moving out to California. You've got the freedom to move as you please."

The urge to leave grows and grows, until he politely excuses himself from the sheriff's presence. With new hand bills collected, they move out to Schultz's cart to remove the body, and King bids him farewell. There is a stein in the saloon with his name on it.

Well, actually there were three steins that had his name on them. Enough to make him tipsy and more than a little melancholic. Lost in his thoughts, he doesn't notice the barmaid at his side until a gentle hand is resting on his shoulder. Instinctively, he grabs her wrist, and he withdraws a tiny pistol from his pocket.

"Mister, I ain't looking for no trouble. You looked real sad is all. Please don't hurt me," the girl pleads.

Coming back to himself, he instantly releases her, feeling ashamed of himself and his dangerous reaction.

"I'm sorry, fraulein. Please forgive me of my rash actions. I'm not feeling quite like myself today."

He then turns back to the bar and puts his head in his hands. He hopes he did not frighten the girl too much. He lets out a deep sigh and wonders if there is an inn in town where he could rent a room for the night.

"Mister, I know you ain't from around here, so I know you don't have anywhere to go tonight. It's not a good idea to be alone when you're feeling sad. Men do strange things when they're lonesome. Maybe I could help?"

Whether she truly feels sorry for him or she just that good at her job remains to be seen. But her words are kind, and King is willing to let himself be roped in by a beautiful lie than face the ugly truth right now. He turns to face the girl, who cannot be more than that, a girl, and wonders what his life has become. She is painted up and laced into a tight blue dress with white ruffles on the bottom that land just above her ankles. Scandalous. He surveys the room and sees a few other saloon girls watching the pair of them to see what he will do. The longer he takes to answer, the more fragile she appears and King does not think it's too much of a stretch to think they are in a similar situation, bound by a life they do not want and do not know how to escape. Perhaps it is good that she was the one who approached him and not one of the older, more experienced madams and mistresses gossiping about them in the corner.

"Alright," he says at last. "You lead the way."

He offers her his arm, and she leads him to a set of stairs that take them to the private bedrooms. She opens the third door on the right and takes him inside to a room with a large bed, curtains that block out the late afternoon sun, and a side table with a pitcher of water and two glasses. King shuts the door behind them.

"Well...," the girl begins, but King cuts her off.

"Have you done this before, my dear?"

She quirks an eyebrow at him. She may be new, but she wasn't stupid enough to ask a man up to a room if she wasn't sufficiently trained.

"Yeah, I done this before. Marcy taught me everything I know."

She had thought this man with the accent was different from the other man that came through town, and she sees that her assumption was correct. Nobody's ever wanted to talk with her first. They just wanted her to lie down and take it.

"I'm sure she has. I did not mean to offend. A job is a job, no matter what implications and ethics come with it. I have learned that for myself."

He shrugs out of his jacket and vest and hangs them on one from a row of pegs and toes off his shoes and socks. She takes this as her cue to begin undressing as well and sits on the bed to remove her shoes and stockings. She's come to find out that some men like it when she reveals a little bit of her legs at a time.

"Forgive me for my rudeness in not asking sooner, miss, but what is your name?"

"Oh, my name's not important, Mister. Why don't you tell me yours instead?"

She moves over on the bed so King can sit next to her, and she hikes her flowing skirts up to the middle of her milky thighs.

"I am King Schultz, and I would be very grateful to know of your name as well," he answers, taking her hand and kissing it.

Lila cannot help the blush that colors her cheeks pink. This man is so different from all of the others.

"I'm Lila," she replies. "What do you want to do to me?"

She cannot allow herself to forget that this is still a transaction. No matter how sweet-tempered King Schultz may be.

"I want to kiss you until you can't remember how to breathe and make love to you until you can do nothing but come around my cock, panting out your pleasure as I pant out mine," he responds readily, carefully tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear, trailing his fingers down her neck.

If possible, the girl flushes even darker. Darker than the petal pink that has been painted on to her face. He means his words though. He is sure she has experienced some rough treatment in her likely short time in the business, and he had no such intention of making her repeat such violent acts. Tonight, he wants someone to love. Even if it is just for a moment.

He pulls Lila to him as the urge to make contact with another human being overwhelms him. His lips descend onto her and soon his tongue is begging entrance into her mouth. She lets out a whimper when he buries one hand deep into her long locks while the other begins untying the laces at her back. And as much as she does not want to pull away, taking off her dress is a two hand effort.

"Wait," she murmurs into his mouth. "Let me turn so you can undress me."

She rises up to her knees on the bed, back to him. He brushes her hair over her shoulder to uncover the lacings and she shivers when he kisses her neck as she feels her dress become looser with every undone knot. Soon, the dress is pooling at her knees, and King makes quick work of her corset as

well. He curse the layers women are forced to wear. Perhaps one day they would not be forced to wear cages around their bodies to please men. Perhaps one day they would dress as they liked to please themselves first and foremost. Trembling in anticipation, Lila turns back around, clothed only in a thin, white slip, and resumes kissing the man in her bed. This kind, gentle man with the sorrowful, hazel eyes. She knew there was a reason she had been drawn to him.

Mostly unclothed herself, she begins undoing the buttons on King's crisp, white shirt and runs her hands over his shoulders and muscular arms. He feels so strong despite his apparent age. Perhaps his line of work has taken its toll on him, just as he had hinted at before. Perhaps that is why his eyes look so sad.

The tenderness of the girl is almost more than King can bear. He can sense it in the gentle way she caresses his arms and back and the way she kisses him with all she has. Her affections goes straight to his cock, and he groans into her mouth when she unbuttons his pants. With a bit more force than

he had been using, he presses her back onto the bed and kicks his pants down and off his legs as frustration begins to come through. Lila willingly parts her legs for him, excited by his change in action.

"Can I?" he husks. "Can I enter you now?"

Lila wraps her legs around his waist to give him more room to move.

"Yes," she breathes, words failing her in the rush.

She had never felt anything like this before. No one had ever iasked/i her if she was ready. They just idid/i it when they wanted to. She was more than ready for him.

He untwines a hand from her long hair and uses it to line up his cock at her entrance, feeling her wetness and heat as the tip presses inside her. Her body is young and firm and tight. She cannot have been doing this for very long at all. The fact that she is as aroused as he is tells him that this is still fairly novel to the girl beneath him. He wonders, briefly, if he were to seek her out ten years from now if she would appear even remotely the same way. Would she be as easy to make blush? Would her smile be as genuine? Would she even stick around long enough to allow the job to suck the very life from her bones? Suddenly, he was no longer sure which of one them he was describing. Rather than follow that path again, he brings himself back to the present moment, feeling alive for the first time in months. The touch and feel of another human is intoxicating and addicting. He wants this girl more than he's wanted something in a very long time. For once, he feels something other than despair.

To celebrate, he begins a steady in and out pace and holds Lila close to his body, kissing her neck and cheeks and lips as she tosses her head on her pillow in apparent enjoyment of their activities. He snakes his hand back down again between their bodies to bring the girl off with him. Her inner walls clench in delight as he does so, and she bucks like a mare under him.

"You are...so sweet, my dear, to give this to me...Your body is a gift, a treasure. It does not matter what anyone says...you are a true gem. Promise me you'll remember that."

Lila bites her lip and lets out high pitched whimpers at his words. They are so unbelievably kind.

"iPromise me/i," he begs.

He cannot let someone so tender and young turn into someone like him. Someone cold and lonely and alone in the world. If he can believe that she believes him, then perhaps this has not been for nothing. Perhaps there is a reason to his continued existence, if only to make an impression on just

one person's life.

"I promise," she says breathlessly.

Her response is like a balm and spurs him on. He increases the speed of his hips and his fingers until Lila is crying out in delight, and he spills himself desperately inside of her. Face tucked into her neck, he sobs out his release and wonders how he ever thought this could be enough.


End file.
